Despite ranking as one of the top streaming services, Amazon’s Prime Video is in the headlines at the moment for the wrong reasons. Other the past few months, the service added an extra charge for subscribers to remove ads, on top of their existing package. But there’s something else you’ll now have to pay extra for – Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.
Read more: The 42 best things to watch on Amazon Prime Video and Freevee
Your existing Prime Video subscription no longer includes either Dolby Vision HDR or Dolby Atmos surround sound. They’ve both been locked behind the new ad-removal fee that Amazon rolled out over the past few weeks. Subscribers now need to pay an additional $2.99/£2.99 on top of their existing subscription to remove ads, and to keep both of Dolby’s formats.
Amazon was less clear about the changes to Dolby Vision and Atmos. But Dutch news outlet 4KFilme discovered prime Video was only playing content in HDR10 and with Dolby Digital 5.1 rather than the better formats. After this, Amazon confirmed that this was a deliberate move, explaining “Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos capabilities are only available on the ad free option, on relevant titles”.
This move has irked most Prime Video subscribers. The fee has been whacked on top of existing subscription tiers, which previously promised not to display ads. Amazon’s streaming service starts at $8.99/£8.99 with ads, and there’s the $2.99/£2.99 fee to remove them and add Dolby’s hi-fi formats back. Price isn’t necessarily the issue here – Netflix’s top tier costs $22.99/£17.99 these days. It’s more the fact that your existing subscription is losing features that subscribers are upset about.
Related: Getting the most out of your Amazon Prime Video subscription
